A canvas type covering of a marine windshield and cockpit area is generally attached when the boat is not in use, either during storage or transportation, so as to protect the cockpit and commonly the windshield. A standardly accepted approach currently in use to attach a canvas or cover, employs a series of expanding fastener for fastening metal snaps within a groove along either the top and or the bottom of an extruded frame. One such method is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,839,388 issued to Vadney on Nov. 24, 1998, entitled, Clip Assembly; also as described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,453,841 issued to Shearer, et al. on Sep. 24, 2002, entitled, Windshield Bottom Trim.
For many years it has been common to mount a boat cover to either the top frame, or the bottom frame of a boat windshield utilizing different types of fasteners for different types of boat covers. Inventor is aware of the following patents; U.S. Pat. No. 2,639,751 issued to Flaherty on May 26, 1953, entitled, Cover for Vehicles. And a Canadian Patent 685,026 issued to Dagenis, on Apr. 21, 1964, entitled, Windshield Rim Molding. The Canadian 062 patent shows a metal extrusion with a track or groove used for holding anchors and snaps, where the fastener anchor is adjustable along the groove and fixably tightened against elongated lips within the outer edges on the insides of the groove, by tightening a screw, where the screw holds a snap fastener.
One predominant example of boat cover windshield attachment from the later 1960's era and later is the Century Boats Company. Century used both types of covers, those that covered both the windshield and cockpit area and those that covered the cockpit area only, usually this type was from the top of the windshield. There are various publications which show top and bottom windshield frame covers and snaps from this era, such as the advertisement for a 1967 Century Resorter, shown on the copy provided (the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference herein). Other classic Century boat photos from this era are included, showing the covers in place.
As mentioned, some designs used an array of snaps on the top or the bottom of the outside of a windshield, as well an array of snaps on the inside bottom of the windshield was used. An example of this is an aluminum extrusion design dated March 1999, as was used by Pacific Coast Marine Windshields Inc (the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference herein). This extrusion is shown as FIG. 9 marked as Prior Art.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,810,267 issued to Fussell et al. on May 14, 1974, entitled Boat Windshield Mounting Means, shows a windshield frame with a lineal groove on the lower outside of the front windshield. Although this patent does not disclose the use of snaps mounted on the bottom of the frame, the lineal groove in the lower windshield frame was readily adapted to mount such cover snaps as is shown herein as FIG. 8 below marked as Prior Art. The most common type of snap fasteners used for this type of windshield frame in the era, are shown in FIG. 4 and FIG. 3 within U.S. Pat. No. 3,304,657 issued to Singleton on Feb. 21, 1967, entitled, Skiff Windshield for Boats, (filed on Sep. 29, 1964) or similarly as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,367,349 issued to O'link on Feb. 6, 1968, entitled, Boat Canopy Holding Means.
Also of interest, is U.S. Pat. No. 6,800,160 issued to Norman on Oct. 5, 2004, entitled Stress Free Mounting System for Sheet Material.
Inventor is also aware of U.S. Pat. No. 2,605,871, issued to Kress et al. On Aug. 15, 1952, entitled Fastening Device. This fastener is designed as an automotive molding attachment means, which uses a fixed fastener within a panel to attach a moulding having a track or slot, so as to be able to adjust the molding on the body panel.
Problems that arise with the expandable type of fastener as described in the Vadney U.S. Pat. No. 5,839,388 patent and again in the Shearer U.S. Pat. No. 6,453,841 patent, are that, over time or when heated by the sun or wet, the fastener becomes loose and can be easily misplaced along the groove, making cover attachment difficult. Also, this expandable type fastener cannot be retightened. Norman describes a solution to this problem in U.S. Pat. No. 6,800,160, where the screw threads are meant to cut through the plastic fastener into the aluminum extrusion on both the top and bottom windshield frame rails, but this may be subject to corrosion by galvanic action between the screw and the aluminum.
The fastener as described in Canadian patent 685,026, does not have the previously mentioned problem of galvanic action, with the plastic fastener within the channel alone contacting the frame rail, but the plastic fastener cannot be easily removed for replacement, if for instance the threads were stripped out of the fastener within the groove. The older established style snap clip, as is shown in Singleton U.S. Pat. No. 3,304,657 patent, cannot be fixed tightly and the metal-to-metal contact is prone to galvanic corrosion.
In another aspect of the current invention as described below, is adapted for attachment of a cover to the bottom edge of the windshield, which is suited for use to the invention as disclosed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/155,942 is specifically adapted for a windshield with a hidden mounting frame. Applicant is aware that several flexible catch systems that have been used, such as is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,122,394 issued to Brydon on Feb. 25, 1964, entitled Convertible To Interlock. Also as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,172,419 issued to Lewis on Mar. 9, 1965, entitled Canopy Lock for Boats. As well as U.S. Pat. No. 5,215,032 issued to Ellis, et al. on Jun. 1, 1993, entitled, Apparatus and Method for Rapidly Attaching a Boat Cover or Canopy to a Windshield.
Accordingly it is an object of the present invention to provided a cover attachment fastener that can be tightened and if necessary retightened, without metal-to-metal contact.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a cover attachment fastener that can be easily replaced without the need for any disassembly of the windshield frame.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a cover attachment fastener that is a single unit for easier installation.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a cover attachment fastener system for a windshield having a hidden lower mounting frame.
Further, it is an object of the present invention to provide a windshield and boat cover attachment system to suit existing manufactured covers.
Still a further object of the present invention is to provide a windshield cover attachment system that can be linearly adjustable, as may be required.
The marine windshield and boat cover attachment system of the present invention has other objects and features of advantage which will become apparent from and are set forth in more detail in, the accompanying drawings and following details.